A wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone or mobile station, is capable of making and receiving voice calls and/or sending and receiving data over a wireless communication network. Recent developments have given such mobile stations the ability to communicate in “push-to-talk” (PTT) modes using Push-to-talk over Cellular (PoC) technology. PoC communication utilizes Voice-over-IP (VoIP) techniques which involve the communication of data packets carrying voice information. PoC communication is adapted for one-to-one talks or group talks which are session-based.
The end user of a mobile station may send an “invitation” for PoC communication to other potential “participants” who may “accept” or ignore the invitation. When an invitation is accepted, a PoC session is created between the two participants. Further acceptances of the invitation will expand the session into a group session having more than two participants.
There are two common ways to create PoC groups for PoC services: 1) predefining a PoC group by a PoC service provider or by a Web-based application tool and 2) defining a group at use time by a user. The predefined manner is inflexible while the use time definition manner is flexible but may be time consuming—the initiating user typically must invite prospective group members individually to the new group. It takes a significant time to create a large group in this manner.
As well, individual PoC groups are typically identified by a group number. When a user is a member of more than one group, it is difficult for a user to remember the purpose of each group of which the user is a member by just looking at those numbers.
A solution to one or more of these shortcomings is therefore desired.